Photo By Nolan Schmidt
I’ve never ascribed to the idea of “New Year, New Me”. While I have no problem with those who do, I’ve always felt it should not take a new year to change something about yourself. Sure, it may seem like the right time to change, a “fresh” start for most. However, the date and year are just numbers in the end. Inward reflection and self-assessment should be done throughout the year and not just when a new one begins.
Feel free to take that philosophical advice at your own discretion. I usually charge for such nuggets as the one above, but for you, the faithful reader of Bison Illustrated, I shall make this one exception. That slice of thought is on the house.
For me, part of my reflection and self-assessment has been how we can improve and make this magazine as pristine as possible. I believe Bison Illustrated has a lot of forward momentum right now (I could be totally delusional too). People are reading our magazine, either online or in print. Folks are also listening to our podcast, as they anxiously await the next installment of “How will Swany and Nolan veer off the rails?”. Our social media is blowing up and we have some new video ventures that I’m extremely excited about.
So, the question remains, where do we go from here?
I’ve come to the conclusion that in order to improve this magazine and continue this perceived momentum, we need to take some risks. We need to be bold and impactful in the way we tell stories. That means we will be exploring topics we’ve never explored before and we’ll be trying new things visually that you may have never seen.
Bison Illustrated will always be for you, the Bison fan, and that will never change. However, we want to tell stories people can relate to, something they can grasp onto and hold, even if they are not a Bison fan. I want everyone to be impacted by Bison Illustrated.
Will these ideas always be a home run? No. In fact, we may swing and miss at a few or even get hit by the pitch. If that occurs, I’ll proudly take the responsibility. I just know I’m not doing my job properly if we’re not exploring new ideas and themes.
That being said, it starts with this issue. Dating back to the days of Joe Kerlin, Bison Illustrated has wanted to do an issue about all the great women in NDSU athletics. That is a challenging feat and it can be both properly and improperly executed. The last thing I wanted to do is leave anyone out, because no woman student-athlete, coach or administrator deserves that—it’d be a complete disservice. So, we came up with a nice wrinkle in order to pull this issue off the way we wanted.
As you read through the cover story where we spotlight some individual student-athletes, coaches and folks in administration, you’ll see a banner on the top and bottom of each page. Every woman in NDSU athletics, whether that be an athlete, coach or administrator is listed throughout those banners. In that way, we recognize everyone, because they deserve the recognition. At NDSU, it’s all about the team, and every single woman in NDSU athletics takes their department, program or team to new heights every day. I believe we properly conveyed that message in this edition.
With that, I feel this issue has the potential to have a lot of impact. The cover is powerful, the content is robust and the reach could be endless as time wears on. That is how we continue to rise and improve at Bison Illustrated. Issues like this are perfect for the Bison fan but are also accessible to those who may not be a member of the NDSU faithful.
It’s not a “New Year, New Me” approach here. We will still do the things you love, but we’re going to create more things for you to love in 2019. If we do not continue to evolve as a magazine, we’ll just be running in place and we will not do that.
We’re running forward…
